TripleGrad

Been there, done that. Look at the 1995 season. Even after we moved to the Big West (and later Sun Belt) North Texas was known for body bag games. Frankly, they don't do anything for reputation. You don't gain fans by getting beat week after week after week for years. We've been the Washington Generals of college football forever. Deliberately deciding to stay in that role is not a way forward.

September 29, 2018

If the 2020 season is canceled, there may be many programs that never restart, especially G5 and below. Would the student body as a whole really care if football, basketball, volleyball etc left? Would the majority of UNT grads? How many can name the current conference?

My wife has decided she wants one now. Last season they were available at Apogee. Does anyone know if they're still around? The UNT athletic website doesn't have them for sale. Any tips are welcomed.

Bringing the game to the Courthouse lawn was a fine idea. Not a huge crowd, but a good time, and lots of folks passing by stopped and watched. Hopefully this will be ongoing. October weather will be very nice.

Maybe at the half, certainly by the end of the 3rd. If Fine goes down this will be a very long season, so why risk him in a meaningless game against ACU?

It looked like an "Eagles" move at first. People figured it out pretty quick, though.

Honestly, I think the GB is too big to be interesting on the field.

My wife is now talking about costs to go to the rest of the games this season. She's a SWT grad (-not- Texas State, she's adamant about it), but she's been raving about how good the experience was and how much fun it was. While the loss hurts, it was a great game to watch.

I took the wife to her first game at Apogee. We were in 102 right on the goal line. The energy in the stadium was nice and high (except during the late 2nd/early 3rd quarters). For an old Eagle, this type of experience is all new. Sure, we lost -- but the crowd was yuge and really into this game. Hopefully that will stay the same going into the rest of the season. (BTW -- that side judge was an idiot 😉 )

I like UNP, but it's a shame how they always get frozen out of the Playoff discussions. It's always December bowls, never NYD. Back on topic, just south of Denton right now it's rain, dear.

Drizzling right now just south of Denton. It's been ranging from drizzle to light rain since at least 7:30 this morning.

Don't borrow trouble, the interest rate is far too high.

Jack's, I think. If the cable guy gets finished in time.

I guess I can take a FireStick somewhere...

It's really hard to tell how good Liberty is, and it's a bit hard to tell how good we are. This kind of depends on which Flames and which Green show up. North Texas 24, Liberty 17. In a game that is far too close for far too long.

I really liked Dusty's, and I'll bug them tomorrow to see if they have ESPN3. In the meantime, is there anything organized already? You know, the Athletic department should show the game at Apogee on the big screen, with dollar dogs. -That- is how you get casual folks to be fans.

I'm very glad to be wrong earlier.

No T25 votes this week. Strength of schedule is too weak. Had SMU taken TCU that would have helped, likewise if Ark hadn't choked last week. Bottom line is we're beating bad teams and FCS teams, and we don't know (and the coaches don't know) how good we really are.

Looks like the Liberty game will be on ESPN3, but it's not listed in the chart above http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3430294/north-texas-vs-liberty-football

That trick punt return gave us more publicity than we've had for years. Good thing it happened during a win 🙂

Thanks for the suggestion. This place was great!

I called Buffalo Wild Wings, but they won't be carrying it

A little background to set context: I was there from 87 - 94 (RIP NTSU). I was in the Green Brigade, later in Talons, and even was in the Eppy costume a few times. I remember being at football games where the crowd may have been a couple hundred folks. I did the road trips to Armpit, Louisiana and to the BIG schools. Then I graduated (again). Life came along, as well as a couple of wives (not at the same time) and a career and all that jazz. Do you know how the big schools keep their alumni base charged up? They do so via televised sports. The ex-students may be 600 miles away, but they can spend 2 hours on a Saturday and feel like they are still part of the experience. North Texas? Not so much. In fact, UNT has been essentially non-existent on big media for decades. There's a ton of other things that take up time for adults. Going to a game takes much of the day if you do it right. The school needs to be a lot higher profile to get folks invested enough to go to the games. I'm impressed by the people on this board, because they are so invested. But to reach the other 216,000+ alumni claimed by UNT, the team has to be visible on the local channels -every- Saturday, people have to -know- that the game is on, and the team has to be competitive. Most importantly, we need to be playing teams that Alumni have heard of. Kansas may be terrible, but at least they're a name. Liberty? Incarnate Word? Nope. On a very positive note, the game day experience was amazing compared to the old days. Actual tailgating fans, the tent city with groups, and the greek letter row was a nice change (though the pledge boys doing the Tongan war dance was just painful). Looks like the push-up cowboys are gone. Apogee was a great environment. The only negative was the Green Brigade looking like State Farm phone support. Those guys should be in uniform. I don't know if that was a sufficient answer. Bottom line, for alumni to become basic fans, the game needs to be easily accessible so people can be excited about being Eagles. For basic fans to become casual fans, they need to get to a game. That game experience goes a long way toward "real fan".